KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 — In four days, the family members of the 239 people that perished on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will mark the fourth year since their loved ones vanished, their fates unknown to this day.

But a renewed sense of hope permeated this year’s remembrance of that fateful incident, as family members bet on the determination of a private sea exploration company and its state-of-the-art vessel, the Seabed Constructor, to locate the missing plane to hand what many of them have so long longed for — closure.

A woman writes a message on the canvas during the 4th annual remembrance event at the Publika in Kuala Lumpur March 3, 2018. — Pictures by Yusof Mat Isa

"To this day, there are those who still hope that their loved ones would one day return.

"But many also hope that by the discovery of the plane, then they could finally move on and have closure… never before have hope and despair sound so similar,” said KS Narendran from India in his tribute to his wife.

Narendran was among those who turned up at the Publika shopping mall that been the venue for the annual gathering of family, lovers and friends of those aboard Flight MH370 these past four years since the plane blipped off the radar just hours after it left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Jing Hong Xu, a relative of one of the passengers of flight MH370, cries during the 4th annual remembrance event at the Publika in Kuala Lumpur March 3, 2018.

Family members paid tributes and gave heartfelt speeches about what the incident intimately meant to them.

They recounted their shared nightmare in chronological order — from the time the news of the plane’s disappearance was announced to the moment of heartache that followed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 2015 announcement that all those on board are most likely dead.

Grace Nathan, whose mother Ann Daisy had boarded the flight, remembered the final blow was when the transport ministers of Malaysia, Australia and China decided to call off the underwater search in January last year due to inconclusive data and the prohibitive cost.

"I was broken,” the 29-year-old said as she addressed the audience and others like hers. "I couldn’t be quiet anymore and I wasn’t ready to accept the announcement.”

But just as public interest in the case began to wane, talks surfaced late last year that a private sea exploration company, Texas-based Ocean Infinity, had offered to locate the Boeing and said it could do so within 90 days, otherwise no charges would be incurred.

By November, Putrajaya confirmed the news; and Ocean would be paid RM360 million (US$90 million) if it succeeds.

The announcement breathed life into the despondent family members who otherwise would have had to live the rest of their lives without closure, something which many are yearning for.

Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Pluckett, in a recorded video message sent to the family members and played back during the remembrance event, said the company have acquired crucial data and expressed confidence that its highly advanced equipment were very capable of zooming in on the doomed plane’s location.

"The data we obtained have been useful; we have high resolution camera capable of mapping out the seabed and all the equipment have worked tremendously well… we’ve searched up to 20,000 square kilometres of the seabed,” he said.

Department of Civil Aviation director-general Datuk Seri Azharuddin Abdul Rahman who also attended today’s remembrance event, echoed the sentiment.

"We are satisfied with their expertise,” he said.

But the Seabed Constructor has found nothing conclusive yet after scouring more than 8000sq km of the new search area and the impending winter that is approaching in the weeks to come may make the campaign even tougher for the Ocean Infinity crew.

Relatives of flight MH370 observe a minute of silence during the 4th annual remembrance event at the Publika in Kuala Lumpur March 3, 2018.

The southern Indian Ocean will be transformed "into a terrifying cauldron of giant crashing waves and freezing winds as winter sets in, placing the lives of those hunting for MH370 at even greater risk”, which could further delay the mission and add more pressure on the crew, Australian-based News.com.au reported just days ago.

The report cited horrifying photographs of waves crashing across the Fugro Discovery, one of three search vessels deployed in the previous Australian-led search for the plane, during the winter months, which it said "illustrated just how perilous that mission was”.

It is uncertain if the families are aware of the latest situation in the Indian Ocean. But if the mood of today’s event is anything to go by, many of them appeared unperturbed.

Family members like Narendran emphasised on "moving on” and focusing on the present and "the living”, while others like Nathan gave a message of strength when stressing how the MH370 incident "is not history, but the future” lesson for the aviation industry to tighten security and other measures so no family will have to endure their suffering again.

People leave messages on paper plane during the 4th annual remembrance event at the Publika in Kuala Lumpur March 3, 2018. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

They were likely signs that the families are ready to put this incident behind them.

"I have learned that if I am to stay in perpetual anger, it will burn all my insights and blinds me,” Narendran said.

"If anything, this year will be about honouring departures and the living presence… that honours life as it is now,” he continued.

"I will never forget,” Nathan said, weeping.

"If they say MH370 is history, I say no, it is the future; they will be a lesson for the aviation industry to prevent anything like this from happening again.”